Having just completed the audio programme for underpinning knowledge for small fell, in this episode we'll take a look at the guidance given for the Level 3 Award for Felling & Processing Trees Over 380mm.
There is some overlap between the 'small' fell and the 'medium / large' fell assessments, and as before I've left gaps of a few seconds between the different criteria in the assessment. You can download the qualification guidance directly from NPTC.
Here it is...
Showing posts with label nptc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nptc. Show all posts
Confusing Industry Documentation
We seem to be in a ridiculous and confusing time when it comes to health and safety / industry best practice documentation - and I can't help thinking that the industry needs to get a grip!
Let's start with the AFAG guides - for years a central core to providing guidance on the best practice in the arboriculture and forestry industry. Let's take AFAG301: Using petrol drive chainsaws as an example... this was superceded in many respects by the Health & Safety Executive's INDG317: Chainsaws at work (a much broader and more in-depth document).
However, we now have FISA that appears to be in direct 'competition' with AFAG, and there seems to be some agreement between the two groups that FISA will deal with only forestry-related guidance, and AFAG will cover arboriculture, and arboriculture-and-forestry-related information. A quick look at the FISA guides as they stand at the moment though shows that AFAG301 is now FISA301, and has the same information but is now coloured orange rather than green.
But the INDG317 document is also still valid.
Add in to this mix, the City and Guilds NPTC qualification guidance documents that still only mention AFAG guides - even though the HSE website states clearly that many of the AFAG guides "have been withdrawn".
It gets better though, as looking at the FISA301 guide - are you keeping up? This is the latest incarnation of the AFAG301 (which has been withdrawn), it clearly states that further reading should include INDG294: Managing Health & Safety in Forestry - only the HSE website states "the publication you are looking for has been withdrawn"!
So, we seem to have a series of interlinked documents that have been superceded, with the new versions linking back to withdrawn copies of old guidance notes... and qualification guidance referring to potentially the wrong information. Is it any wonder that health and safety in the industry can be somewhat confusing at times?
Let's start with the AFAG guides - for years a central core to providing guidance on the best practice in the arboriculture and forestry industry. Let's take AFAG301: Using petrol drive chainsaws as an example... this was superceded in many respects by the Health & Safety Executive's INDG317: Chainsaws at work (a much broader and more in-depth document).
However, we now have FISA that appears to be in direct 'competition' with AFAG, and there seems to be some agreement between the two groups that FISA will deal with only forestry-related guidance, and AFAG will cover arboriculture, and arboriculture-and-forestry-related information. A quick look at the FISA guides as they stand at the moment though shows that AFAG301 is now FISA301, and has the same information but is now coloured orange rather than green.
But the INDG317 document is also still valid.
Add in to this mix, the City and Guilds NPTC qualification guidance documents that still only mention AFAG guides - even though the HSE website states clearly that many of the AFAG guides "have been withdrawn".
It gets better though, as looking at the FISA301 guide - are you keeping up? This is the latest incarnation of the AFAG301 (which has been withdrawn), it clearly states that further reading should include INDG294: Managing Health & Safety in Forestry - only the HSE website states "the publication you are looking for has been withdrawn"!
So, we seem to have a series of interlinked documents that have been superceded, with the new versions linking back to withdrawn copies of old guidance notes... and qualification guidance referring to potentially the wrong information. Is it any wonder that health and safety in the industry can be somewhat confusing at times?
The All New Chipper Course... Has it gone legislation mad?
Or is it? We all know it's important to maintain health and safety standards - we work in a dangerous industry after all, and stupid 'mistakes' are still being made such as this example where a worker lost an arm in a chipper, and this example of an unsupervised and untrained teenager operating a chipper who lost his toes after pushing the brash into it. These aren't accidents from decades ago either... how is it there is still such ignorance about the law surrounding this equipment?
All of the new Level 2 Awards have a common thread through them - risk assessment, emergency planning, and legislation - and I think that's a good thing, but why does the Level 2 Woodchippers talk about the following NINE regulations...
- Management of Health & Safety At Work Act '99
- Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations '98
- Control of Vibration at Work Regulations '05
- Personal Protective Equipment Regulations '92
- Manual Handling Operations Regulations '92
- Noise at Work Regulations '89
- COSHH
- "Countryside and Wildlife Act '81" (shouldn't that be the Wildlife and Countryside Act anyway?
- RIDDOR
...when the Level 2 chainsaw maintenance and crosscutting only has:
- Health & Safety at Work Act
- PUWER
- AFAG guides (no mention of INDG317: Chainsaws At Work or the FISA guides which have taken over from some of the formally relevant AFAG guides)
No mention of RIDDOR there... and no mention of the PPE regulations either... or the manual handling regs, control of vibration, noise at work, or COSHH for that matter! All of which apply equally to using chainsaws as much as using the chipper.
Perhaps City & Guilds NPTC should consider separating out the legislative stuff and running it as a distinct assessment? Then enforcing refresher training on this.
What do you think?
CS31: Legal Constraints Intro
Although the CS31 small fell assessment barely mentions the legal and environmental constraints, it is included in the assessment; just at a very superficial level. I wanted to talk a little bit more about the legal constraints that surround felling, just so that you have a little background knowledge on the answers that the assessor will be looking for!
Find out more after the jump...
Firstly, let's just take a quick peek at what the assessment schedule says; which at the time of writing was written in June 2010. You can download the PDF version of this assessment schedule freely from the NPTC website: NPTC CS31 Assessment Schedule. In fact, as we work our way through it over the coming months it might be handy to have a copy of this handy.
The assessment schedule says that you should be able to demonstrate knowledge of the following four legal constraints with regard to felling:
- Tree Preservation Orders (TPO's)
- Conservation Areas
- Felling Licences
- Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981
Whilst those are the answers, over the next four articles we'll take a quick peek at each of them. I'm not going to go into huge depth with any of these, but I'll hopefully provide you with a basic understanding of what they contain and how it relates to felling.
- DriveLink -
CS31 - Felling small trees...
Whilst my work here is almost done with CS30 (chainsaw maintenance and cross-cutting), the next big thing to tackle is going to be felling. Undertaking the NPTC CS31 Fell & Process Small Trees is not to be under-estimated, and there's really only one way to ensure that you pass... practice.
Find out more after the jump...
But there's so much more than just practicing your felling cuts, there's legal and environmental issues, how to deal with trapped saws, setting up escape routes, brashing and removing buttresses, snedding and delimbing, perhaps a bit of winch work thrown in for good measure too; and the list goes on to include a heap of safety bits and bobs...
In this next series of articles, we'll be taking a look at the whole range of issues concerned with passing your small fell (CS31) assessment. I'll try to include video, podcasts, images and text articles in order to help you through. Remember, you can contact me through the comments page if there's something that you'd really like to discuss.
Cheers. DriveLink.
How Time Flies...
I can't believe it's been so long since my last update - so much has been going on! Find out more after the jump...
The new NPTC assessment schedules are in full force now, and I've personally been busy delivering the new CS30 (chainsaw maintenance and crosscutting), CS31 (small fell) and CS38 (climbing and aerial rescue) courses.
There's not too much difference with the CS30, or the CS31 for that matter, but the CS30 does now include a bit more information on problems with chain components (look out for an post on that soon), and bore cuts (I'm thinking that a video would be good for that?).
The CS31 now includes a little bit more on winching, but the big change is with the CS38 as that now includes spiking up a pole and carrying out pole rescues (and that means both 2-man and 3-man (belay) rescues).
So, I haven't forgotten about you - I've just been really busy, but I still have some plans to write a few more articles and might just also include some small fell material too...
Latest Update On Assessments
As I mentioned way back in my last blog article, the chainsaw certification process is to be changed at some point in the future, and I had some doubt as to what the changes would be. However, NPTC had made the proposed schedules available and after reading through them and forwarding on my comments before the consultation period ended, I think (on the whole) the changes would be good. Find out more after the jump...
So what are the changes? Firstly they are proposing to amend the actual structure of the certification, as well as changing the schedules. Here, in brief, is a summary of those changes...
- The risk assessment, emergency planning and various other knowledge elements are to be brought together and made in to a 'knowledge unit' that is to form part of the foundation certificates. The CS30 is the other foundation course and, by and large, remains similar to the existing one.
- The CS31 small fell is to include rope / winch work (winching is currently part of CS32).
- The CS32 (medium fell) is to now include the felling of weighted trees. This is a major change and one which makes some sense as although the same cuts are used as small fell, the method of achieving them is different.
- The climbing and aerial rescue course is to be called CS38 (as it used to be!) and some major changes are being proposed for this; including... a tree identification element where the student will have to recognise 10 different tree species. The aerial rescue will also have to include a pole rescue as well as a 'tree' rescue. I think this is to be applauded and definitely a move in the right direction.
- The CS39, using a chainsaw from a rope and harness, is to have additional cuts added to the schedule. This will result in the student having to complete both horizontal and vertical cuts, which is basically simulating the cuts required for dismantling.
The above summary of changes is only a proposal at the moment, and I'm not sure that anything will happen until LANTRA get the National Occupational Standards approved - which could take some time.
For now, the courses and assessment schedules remain as they are - so I can get back to creating some new videos and writing some more about chainsaw maintenance and cross-cutting.
NPTC: Things are changing...
The NPTC, who award many of the industry standard certificates of competence is undergoing a major review of the whole system. If you are interested in completing any of the chainsaw (CS-) units, or have an interest in the Forest Machine Operations units, read on after the jump...Only yesterday (the 17th July 2008), NPTC put out a consultation document for Forest Machine Operations - you can find out more at http://www.nptc.org.uk/latest-news/detail.asp?dsid=305.
Perhaps of more interest to us, is looking at what is likely to happen to the CS units - the consultation period has actually finished for these units and it's looking like there will be a few changes in store. The one that peaked my curiosity was the CS30 (chainsaw maintenance and cross-cutting) was showing up as having a time-limit applied to the certification. It also looks like it's getting a re-write, so watch this space.
Other changes include the abolition of the CS33 large fell - this is probably a good move and (one assumes) will now be included as part of the CS32 medium fell assessment. Interestingly enough, the CS34 / CS35 (dealing with windblown trees) now only has CS31 small fell as a pre-requisite, whereas previously this had to be CS32.
It appears then that things are about to change, and that means that the training providers will have to sort out their provision to allow for the new changes. An interesting time in the industry and you can keep up to date with it by viewing the NPTC website - latest news - at http://www.nptc.org.uk/latest-news/.
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